Gaming systems have evolved from those which provided an isolated gaming experience to networked systems providing a rich, interactive experience which may be shared in real time between friends and other gamers. Gaming platforms may in general be broken down into two categories. The first makes use of a dedicated console capable of communication with a particular console service provider. An example of this is Microsoft's Xbox® video game console which communicates with the Live® online game service. The second category of gaming platform is web-based, where games stored and maintained on a host website may be accessed by a generic computing device such as a PC. An example of this category of gaming platform is MSN® Games.
Traditionally, an important distinction between console games and web-based games was that console games and associated data were stored on a local storage device associated with the console. However, with the development of console services such as Live® online game service, much of the storage and processing of game data has shifted upward away from the console, and the distinctions between console games and web-based games are diminishing.
With the blurring of the distinctions between console and web-based games, a significant obstacle still remains preventing cross-over between these two platforms. Namely, each platform still maintains its own set of profiles, including user identification, friends lists, game rewards and other metadata associated with games played on the two platforms. A console gamer has a gamer profile that is stored locally and/or at the console service. The gamer may have spent significant time building that profile. However, when that same user plays a web-based game, he is not able to access or add to his developed profile. The user cannot access his identity or friends lists, and the game rewards earned while playing the web-based game will not be credited to his console game profile. The user must start a new profile for his web-based gaming. The same is true in reverse for web-based gamer profiles. At present, there is no developed scheme for sharing profiles and/or other metadata between console games and web-based games. This presents a significant obstacle to integration of the two platforms. A user is more likely to stick with the platform on which he has a developed profile, and is unlikely to use the other platform if to do so requires development of a second, distinct profile.
This is also true of the games themselves, in that games are developed for console play or web-based play, but not one game for both. Even where two games are essentially the same, a user playing a first version of the game on a console is not able to play or share experiences with a user playing a second, web-based version of the game. And a user playing both versions is not able to combine game rewards accrued on the two different platforms.